Houses Magazine, Issue 132 (February 2020) Cooks River House by studioplusthree
Immersed in a tumbling hillside garden, this reworking of a Federation-era bungalow in Sydney's Inner West eschews suburban tropes in favour of spaces that foster connection with the landscape.
Hurlstone Park in Sydney’s Inner West has a strong suburban character with Federation and California bungalows lining the streets. But step through the front gate at Cooks River House, and a landscape of rocky outcrops and native plants terraces down the hill, with the sense of flowing right through the house to Cooks River Foreshore. The clients, Bob and Emily, have a fondness for the Blue Mountains, and evoking the wild and natural feeling of a national park inspired the architecture and landscaping.
Cooks River House, designed by studioplusthree, is an alteration and addition to a Federation bungalow. The front of the house faced south to the river, and a northern addition didn’t let in much light, so with small rooms and limited windows, the interior was cold and dark. It also lacked connection with the landscape, which was overgrown (and part of the appeal) when Bob and Emily purchased the property. Surrounded by sandstone and trees, it had the feeling of a mountain home, and Bob and Emily saw it as an adventure-filled environment to raise their three children.
“It was challenging working with such a difficult landscape and a house that was so awkward on the site. We worked to marry them together so that every room has a connection to the landscape,” says Joseph Byrne, co-director of studioplusthree. Studioplusthree worked with landscape designer Christopher Owen, director of Fieldwork Associates, from the beginning of the project as the surroundings formed an important part of the concept.
Using the existing footprint and the original bungalow structure, studioplusthree designed a two-storey house, keeping the additions natural and minimal in response to the setting. The lower volume has an open interior and sliding glass doors, minimising the form create a continuous sense of landscape. The timber-clad upper volume has a contemporary profile that extends beyond the glass walls and grey steelwork of the ground floor, yet maintains the massing and gabled roof of the Federation bungalow as well as the neighbouring houses.
Viewing the house from the top of the site, the upper volume appears to float over the lower volume, which has the sense of being carved out. Walking down through the landscape – passing native plantings, a sandstone cliff face and flat spaces for the children to play – the view through the house continues to open up, with a large south-facing opening framing the lower-garden tree canopy. A more utilitarian metal-and-concrete stair provides a direct route from the garage to the house, over the cliff face, and existing concrete slabs and new concrete pavers surround the new addition.
The front door is at the junction of old and new and the deep-purple colour, inspired by the Australian bush, is the first introduction to Emily’s love of colour. The kitchen and dining area in the new addition face north to the uphill landscape. Opening the glass doors on all three sides creates a pavilion-like feel, and the deep overhang of the upper volume serves as eaves to obstruct the summer sun.
studioplusthree used similar materials inside and out to merge the architecture and landscape. The concrete flooring mimics the external slab and pavers; spotted gum is used for joinery throughout; and green Forbo in the kitchen works tonally with plantings.
A large door that slides into the wall can section off the kitchen and dining area from the living room for heating, privacy and acoustics. The timber flooring of the living room flows out to a timber south-facing deck that cantilevers over the lower garden. The brick front of the Federation villa is visible here, and the sandstone rock footings have been exposed to reveal the original construction and marry the house with the landscape.
Studioplusthree retained the corner bedroom, inserting a larger window for light, and divided a second bedroom into a bathroom and a laundry. Spotted gum joinery is paired with blue Forbo in the bathrooms, and bright-yellow linings in the drawers and cupboards are a colourful surprise.
There are three bedrooms, a study and family bathroom upstairs, and every room offers a different aspect of the landscape, but no less connection despite being one floor up. Two children’s bedrooms have north-facing glass walls with external blinds and side windows for cross ventilation. A “bridge” to Bob and Emily’s bedroom creates a sense of transition as it passes into the pod-like form that sits atop and within the Federation roof. South-facing windows frame the tree canopy, and the gabled roof minimised the visual impact form the foreshore.
With landscape views from every room, and a rugged site to explore, Cooks River House complements the character of inner-suburban Sydney yet has the feeling of being in the mountains, immersed in wilder nature. “It’s not the typical landscape when you think of Sydney,” says Julin Ang, co-director of studioplusthree. “It’s a humble, peaceful and serene refuge from suburbia, yet still a suburban house.”
More project images here
Words: Rebecca Gross
Photography: Tom Ferguson